


Just (Best) Friends

by gingerfic



Series: An Alphabet of Samcedes Stories [10]
Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe, Awkward First Times, Childhood Friends, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Prom, kids!samcedes, samcedes - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-23
Updated: 2015-10-23
Packaged: 2018-04-27 17:02:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5056654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingerfic/pseuds/gingerfic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They’ve been friends since they were little. <br/>Just (best) friends.<br/>(Just) best friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just (Best) Friends

**Author's Note:**

> beta by hkvoyage, who reminded me of the importance of chapstick (you'll see)

One day a new family moved into the neighborhood. As some adults carried boxes and furniture into the house, a little blond boy stood on the front lawn with a large teddy bear clutched under his arm and watched them.

“Mommy, where’s Anna?”

A blonde woman crouched next to him and brushed the hair out of his eyes before kissing him on the forehead. “She doesn’t live next to us anymore honey. We had to move for Daddy’s job. I know Anna was your friend, but you will make new friends.”

“I miss Anna,” he repeated stubbornly, a tear rolling down his cheek.

“I know Sam, I’m sorry.” She patted his shoulder and adjusted the stuffed animal in his grasp. “Burry Bear is still here. He came with us!” She offered brightly. “I bet he will help keep you company until you start meeting new friends.”

“I don’t want Burry Bear,” Sam declared, throwing the toy to the ground dramatically. “I want Anna.”

“I’m sorry, Honey. I know you do. But you’ll make new friends, really. I promise.” She kissed the top of his head and hurried back to work. Sam scuffed at the ground for a few minutes, walking back and forth and glaring at the stuffed bear before plopping down in a huff. He was extremely busy with feeling sorry for himself when a shadow fell across him.

“Scoose me?”

Sam looked up and saw a little girl, about his own age. Her eyes were wide and dark, her hair was thick and twisty and she had it in several pigtails sticking out all over her head. He squinted at her but didn’t speak.

“I said ‘scoose me.’ Now you’re sposed ta say ‘what?’” she instructed, one hand on her hip and the other gesturing in the air helpfully.

“What?”

“See, that wasn’t so hard,” she beamed at him. Sam smiled back, feeling a little confused but for some reason moderately hopeful.

“My name’s Cedes,” the little girl announced, thrusting her hand at his face.

He stared at it.

“You’re sposed ta shake it. Don’t they shake hands where you’re from?”

Sam furrowed his brow and grasped her hand, and she shook it vigorously. 

“Where  _ are _ you from?” Cedes continued.

“I’m Sam and this is my new house,” Sam offered.

“Where did you live before?” Cedes plopped on the grass next to him and began twiddling Burry Bear’s ears.

“My old house was next to Anna’s house,” Sam explained helpfully.

Cedes contemplated the new information. “I don’t know any Anna,” she said finally. “So that must be very far away.”

Sam nodded somberly. “We drived for a hundred hours.”

Cedes looked appropriately impressed for several long moments before the grin broke across her face again. “Do you want to play?”

\-----

Sam and Mercedes had been inseparable since the day they became neighbors. Somewhere in middle school all of their friends started teasing them about it.

“You like him.”

“Duh, he’s my best friend.”

“No, I mean, you  _ like _ like him.”

“Shut up.”

“You dooo-ooo!”

“Whatever. Can I borrow your lipgloss?”

Even to each other, they never seemed to consider the possibility that their friendship might be anything other than just a friendship.

“Sam, can I ask you something?” she asked him one night when they were in his bedroom doing homework. She was laying on her stomach on the bed, slogging through pre-algebra, while Sam (who had apparently already finished his work for the night--or else was blowing it off) was eating licorice and spinning himself on the desk chair to see if he would get dizzy.

“Duh, you can always ask me anything.” He bit off another piece of licorice with a grin.

Mercedes sat up and pushed her books aside, accidentally knocking Burry Bear onto the floor in the process. She leaned over to rescue him and put him back in his place. “Have you ever kissed anybody?”

Sam stopped spinning and squinted at her. “Not yet. Why?”

“Don’t you want to?”

“Of course I do!” Sam laughed. “I just, I dunno…” He looked at the ceiling and the far corner of the room, and got up and walked in a circle for a minute before plopping on the bed next to her. “I guess I’m nervous. Like that I would do it wrong and then she would make fun of me.”

“Why would someone… Sam, I’m sure it would be ok. I mean, you go through so much chapstick I’m sure your lips are soft and…”

Without thinking about it, Sam pulled his chapstick out of his pocket and applied some, snapping the lid back on with a sharp  _ pop _ . Mercedes mentally berated herself for mentioning his lips, because now she was thinking about Sam’s lips in a way she never really had before, and it was distracting.

“Have you ever thought about practicing?” Mercedes blurted, staring resolutely at her fingernails.

“What?” Sam’s head snapped toward her.

“I mean, like, with a friend. Practicing so that you could learn how? So you could avoid that kind of stuff?”

“Well I’m thinking about it now.” His blue eyes zoned in on Mercedes’ face and she couldn’t help but meet them.

“I’ve thought about it,” she whispered.

“Do you want to?” He scooted imperceptibly closer. “Like, right now?”

“I, um...I just thought…”

“Mercedes?” Sam lifted his hand to her cheek and leaned barely toward her, still clearly waiting for her to close the other half of the distance between them.

Mercedes’ heartbeat was pounding in her ears and she couldn’t quite remember what they had been talking about. All she was aware of was those bright eyes, and the realization that Sam actually had really soft-looking lips, and then her eyes fell shut and she met him in the middle.

It was soft, and short, and a little bit sticky from the licorice and fresh chapstick. It was not really anything that Mercedes had imagined a kiss would be; and yet everything she had hoped it might be.

“Oh,” was all she said.

“Was that?” Sam scooted back rapidly, wincing as his back crashed into the corner of the bed frame. “I mean…”

“I would not make fun of you,” Mercedes declared, finally opening her eyes and making herself look at him.

“That was ok?”

She nodded. “Yeah.”

“Thanks Cedes.” Sam grinned, easily falling back on the nickname he’d used for her since the day they met. “I don’t think I even realized how nervous I was about that until you brought it up. And now I’m not anymore. You’re the best.”

“You’re the best too,” she began, but her voice cracked and she had to clear her throat. “Anyway, I have to find the volume of this cylinder,” she gestured to her book. “But I’m glad we did that. It’s good to have it, you know, out of the way.”

“Yeah,” Sam was nodding. “Yeah, out of the way.”

\-----

After that, Sam and Mercedes each had their share of dates, kisses, and broken hearts. Every time they came back to each other, getting giddy over each other’s romances and consoling each other through the heartbreaks. As the end of high school rolled around, Sam had a date for Senior Prom and Mercedes did not. He invited her to come along with him and his date (since they were all three friends anyway). Most people might think that was weird, but everyone was so used to Mercedes and Sam being joined at the hip that Sam’s date just shrugged and went with it.

On the long-awaited night, the three of them arrived at the dance together. Mercedes staked out a good table location and spent most of the evening chatting with various friends, and keeping track of whose punch cup was whose. Somewhere toward the end of the evening Sam came over and held out his hand.

“Dance?”

It was a slow song, but they had danced to many of those over the years. After all, they were best friends. Mercedes took his hand without hesitation and followed him to the middle of the floor.

“You look beautiful tonight,” he whispered in her ear.

“You’re not so bad yourself,” she teased back.

“No, Mercedes, I mean it.” Sam leaned back and stopped dancing to force Mercedes to really look at him.

“What?”

“You are really, the most beautiful person here tonight. On the outside, but on the inside too.”

“Sam!” She tugged on his arm to get him to stop drawing attention to them. “Don’t say that, your girlfriend is--”

“Over there, look.” He gestured with his chin to where his date was sitting on her ex-boyfriend’s lap, making out with him.

“Oh, Sam, I’m so sorr-”

“Don’t be. I’m not,” Sam said, looking intently at the girl in his arms.

“What?”

“I think I made a mistake, Mercedes, when I was choosing who to ask to prom. Actually, I think I’ve made a lot of mistakes, over and over, for years.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You, Cedes.”

She stared at him, not sure whether she understood what he was trying to say. “Sam?”

“All of these years I’ve been looking for a girl to love, but all this time she’s been right there.  _ You _ have been right there.”

“Sam, I…”

“And if you don’t feel the same that’s ok. You don’t have to. And we can still be friends. Or not. Or whatever you want. But I finally realized that I think I’ve been in love with you forever. And I needed you to know.”

“Sam,” she repeated, putting her hands on either side of his face and pulling him down to her height.

“What?”

“Shut up.”

Sam obediently snapped his jaw shut, pursing his lips in nervous anticipation. Fortunately, he only had to wait a moment, because then she kissed him. And it was nothing that his other kisses had been; and yet everything that he had ever needed a kiss to be.

“Soooo...best friends forever?”

“Best friends forever. Now shut up and kiss me some more.”


End file.
